Saturday, March 29, 2014

I'm still writing about Ukraine and posting links to stuff I think is worth reading at Nuclear Diner. It's looking like Vladimir Putin feels he's in a strong enough position to negotiate. We'll see what comes of it.

This is worth thinking about: If Vladimir Putin is worried about "Nazis" in Kiev, why is he supporting far-right groups across Europe? And we can consider his claim to be leading the conservatives of the world in gay-bashing and other things. The simple answer is that a) he really is conservative in many senses of the word and b) he is opportunist enough to use whatever levers he can against people he considers enemies.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Before he signed a
measure incorporating the Crimea into the Russian Federation, Vladimir
Putin gave a speech (official
English translation). The speech lays out his justification for annexing
Crimea and lists a number of grievances and a few promises. It is shot through
with misstatements of fact. The Washington Post’s Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler,
gives the factual content of the speech four
pinocchios, indicating a high degree of inaccuracy. I can find a number of
other inaccuracies, but that is not my focus. Links at the beginning of quotes
should take you to that part of the speech.

Saturday, March 01, 2014

I've been selecting some of the better articles to read on the situation in Ukraine and writing a bit about how I understand things. That's been at Nuclear Diner - too much happening this week to cross-post. Here are those posts and some additional reading.

Timothy Snyder's articles are very worth reading. The part of the world between Germany and Russia is poorly understood by many Western commentators. You really need to spend some time on it, even live there for a bit, to understand the contradictions to some of our common wisdom.